Two years' worth of emails South Carolina Gov. Henry McMaster sent and received before he took the state's top job have been deleted despite priorities to save the electronic communications as historical records.

Sources say since no one acted to preserve McMaster's emails from his time as lieutenant governor and they were automatically deleted after six months.

McMaster was elevated from lieutenant governor after his predecessor Nikki Haley was named United Nations ambassador in January.

McMaster early on backed the presidential bid of Donald Trump - who attacked Democrat Hillary Clinton for deleted emails.